Antarctic Ice Cores - 2002 metres deep as the year 2002 arrivesJanuary 15, 2002In the first week of the New Year a team of European scientists reached successfully the depth of 2002 metres of ice at the site of Dome Concordia high on East Antarctica's plateau - one of the most hostile places on the planet. The team, working on a seven-year Antarctic ice core programme to discover the history of the Earth's climate and atmosphere, report that ice from this depth came from snow that fell 170,000 years ago, when the region was 10°C colder than it is today. The 22-person team of scientists and drilling experts taking part in the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) have created a laboratory and drilling platform on the ice. Working in maximum temperatures of -20°C, it takes about 1.5 hours to drill and bring to the surface each 3 m-long ice core. After analysis on site the cores are sent to over 30 different European laboratories for detailed study. The team will return to Antarctica next year to drill to the bottom of the ice, which is 3.3km thick, to produce a history of climate and atmospheric composition for the last half a million years. January also marks the start of drilling for a new EPICA ice core at Dronning Maud Land (DML), one of the least explored regions of Antarctica, 3,000 km from Dome C on the opposite side of the continent. Cores from Dome C will provide the longest possible record of the past atmosphere. The DML site receives double the snowfall of Dome C, and this ice core will provide even more detailed information, although it will not reach so far back in time. Scientists measure impurities in the air bubbles trapped in the ice to investigate the link between climate and greenhouse gases. -END- For more information contact: Belgium: Roland Souchez : + 32 2 6502227 ; glaciol@ulb.ac.be Denmark : J. P. Steffensen : + 45 35 32 05 57 ; jps@gfy.ku.dk Niels Gundestrup : + 45 35 32 05 53 ; ng@gfy.ku.dk France: Jean Jouzel : + 33 1 69 08 77 13 ; jouzel@lsce.saclay.cea.fr Gérard jugie : +33 2 98 05 65 02 ; Gerard.Jugie@ifremer.fr) Dominique Raynaud : + 33 4 76 82 42 45 ; domraynaud@glaciog.ujf-grenoble.fr Germany: Hartwig Gernandt, phone +49 471 4831 1160 ; hgernandt@awi-Bremerhaven.de Hans Oerter, phone +49 471 4831 1347, hoerter@awi-bremerhaven.de (away from office 16-20 Jan) Italy: Guisseppe Orombelli ; +39 02 6448 2857/2855 ; giuseppe.orombelli@unimib.it Mario Zucchelli ; + 39 06 30 48 49 39 , direzione@casaccia.enea.it Netherlands: Johannes Oerlemans : + 31 30 25 33 272 ; j.oerlemans@phys.uu.nl Norway:Jan - Gunnar Winther : + 47 77 75 05 31 ; winther@npolar.no Sweden :Margareta Hansson : + 46 8 674 7865 ; margareta.hansson@natgeo.su.se Switzerland: Bernhard Stauffer : + 41 31 631 44 67 ; stauffer@climate.unibe.ch UK: David Peel : + 44 1223 221478 : dape@bas.ac.uk ESF contact: Svenje Mehlert ; + 33 38876 71 21 ; smehlert@esf.org European Science Foundation (ESF) |
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